Around 200 men and women from Mangalakudi village submitted a petition to officials at the Collector’s office here on Monday alleging that their ration cards had been arbitrarily classified as non-priority household (NPHH) cards in the recent survey although all of them had ‘below poverty line’ (BPL) income. The petitioners alleged that none of the officials visited their households or locality during the survey to assess whether they should be classified as priority households (PHH) or NPHH. They said that of the 300-odd households in the village, 200 had been classified as NPHH.
The survey, intended to be an elaborate door-to-door verification exercise to identify PHH, was carried out across Tamil Nadu by Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection department as part of the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the State.
State government had maintained that though the exercise was carried out as per the mandatory guidelines of the Act, there will be no reduction in supply of rice and other items being given. However, according to the villagers, the employees at the ration shops informed them that their rice and other supplies would be reduced henceforth. “Some of us were given less amount of rice and sugar even this month,” said V. Vetrivel, a resident of the village. S. Selvi, another resident, said that even some elderly people living alone or with their spouses without any source of income had been classified as NPHH. “My husband works as a construction labourer. Apart from a small house, we do not have any property. Our family is also now an NPHH,” she said. CSCP department had given elaborate guidelines for identifying a household as NPHH, which included households with annual family income of more than Rs. one lakh, at least one income tax payer in the family, owning an air-conditioner or four-wheeler and farmers with more than five acres of land.
S. Mayandi, Madurai district executive member of Communist Party of India (Marxist), who accompanied the petitioners, said that none of the households would come under NPHH category if the survey criteria were properly followed. He said the officials had assured to carry out a review and correct the classification, if found wrong.
